Silent Film Actress: Mae Murray "The Gardenia of the Screen".

Mae Murray (May 10, 1885 – March 23, 1965), rose to fame during the silent film era and was known as "The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips" and "The Gardenia of the Screen". She first began acting on the Broadway stage in 1906 with dancer Vernon Castle. In 1908, she joined the chorus line of the Ziegfeld Follies, moving up to headliner by 1915.

Murray became a star of the club circuit in both the United States and Europe, performing with Clifton Webb, Rudolph Valentino, and John Gilbert as some of her many dance partners.

Murray made her motion picture debut in, To Have and to Hold in 1916. A silent adventure/drama film directed by George Melford. Based on the 1900 novel of the same name, the film starred Wallace Reid and Mae Murray. To Have and to Hold is now considered lost.

She became a major star for Universal, starring with Rudolph Valentino in, The Delicious Little Devil(1919). A story about a poor hat-check girl, who loses her job and is forced to get a job as a dancer at a roadhouse. She falls in love with the son of a rich businessman. The boy's father, believing her to be a "gold-digger", plans to show his son who she really is.

Please click here for past movie review.

She also performed in the film, Big Little Person(1919). Another lost silent film romantic/drama produced and distributed by Universal Pictures. It was directed by her husband at the time, Robert Z. Leonard.

Murray formed her own production company with her director, John M. Stahl. She was criticized because of her over-the-top costumes and over-acting, but... her films were popular with younger movie-goers.

In 1925, Murray, Leonard, and Stahl produced films at Tiffany Pictures, Souls for Sables (1925), starring Claire Windsor and Eugene O'Brien.

For a short time, Murray wrote a weekly column for William Randolph Hearst's newspaper.

Murray, was a member of the board of trustees at the Motion Picture and Television Fund. A charitable organization that offers assistance and care to those in the motion picture and television industries without resources. Four decades later, Murray herself received aid from that organization.

In the early 1920s, Murray was painted by the well known Hollywood portrait painter Theodore Lukits. This work titled Symphony in Jade and Gold (The Actress Mae Murray) (1922, Private Collection, Northern California) depicted Murray in the nude, gazing in a mirror. It was exhibited at the Pacific Asia Museum in 1999 and two other venues as part of the exhibition Theodore Lukits, An American Orientalist.

Murray's most famous role was in the Erich von Stroheim directed film, The Merry Widow (1925), with John Gilbert. Prince Danilo falls in love with dancer Sally O'Hara. His uncle, King Nikita I of Monteblanco forbids the marriage because she is a commoner. Thinking she has been jilted by her prince, Sally marries old, lecherous Baron Sadoja. When he dies suddenly, Sally must be wooed all over again by Danilo. Please click here for movie review.

Murray made her "talkie" debut in the film, Peacock Alley (1930), a remake of her earlier 1921 version Peacock Alley. Murray's character in the 1921 film was named Cleo, she was renamed Claire Tree in this film. George Barraud replaced Monte Blue as the male lead, who is now named Clayton Stoddard.

Video: Film clip from Peacock Alley (1930).



The film takes place in New York City, instead of Paris as in the earlier film's plot. Instead of falling in love with a man who happens along, Claire is looking for a husband.

First a Texan, who rejects Claire because he believes her to be immoral, and Stoddard, who agrees to marry her. The film was lavishly produced, with elaborate sets and a 2-color Technicolor sequence in which Murray tangoed and impersonated both a toreador and a bull.

In 1931, she was cast with Irene Dunne, Lowell Sherman and Norman Kerry, in the talkie, Bachelor Apartment. A story about a working girl falls for a skirt-chasing playboy.

Murray made only one more film, the comedy drama High Stakes (1931) also with Sherman.

Her movie career took a turn for the worst after she married, her fourth husband, David Mdivani, whose brothers, Serge and Alexis, married actress Pola Negri and the heiress Barbara Hutton. The couple married on June 27, 1926, and Mdivani became her manager, suggesting that his new wife leave MGM. Murray took her husband's advice and walked out of her contract with MGM, disappointing studio boss Louis B. Mayer. They had one child, Koran David Mdivani (born 1927), before divorcing in 1933.

Later, asked to return, but Mayer would not rehire her. Mayer blacklisted her from working for the Hollywood studios.

In 1927, Murray was sued by her then-masseuse, the famous Hollywood fitness guru Sylvia of Hollywood.

In the 1940's, Murray performed at Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe, a nightclub which specialized in a "Gay '90s" atmosphere. Her dancing (in particular the Merry Widow Waltz) was very popular, but Murray refused to acknowledge her age, wearing heavy makeup and fitting her mature figure into short skirted costumes with plunging necklines.

Murray continued to have financial troubles and for most of her life she lived in poverty. She was the subject of an authorized biography, The Self-Enchanted (1959), written by Jane Ardmore, that has often been incorrectly called Murray's autobiography.

In September 1908, in Hoboken, New Jersey, while she was appearing in the Follies of 1908, Murray married William M. Schwenker, Jr. (born 1885), the unemployed son of a brewery-supply dealer, who cut off his son's allowance on news of the wedding they divorced in 1910.

Murray later moved into the Motion Picture House in Woodland Hills, a retirement community for Hollywood professionals. She died there at the age 79.

Donut Dunking lessons and It Happened One Night.

When I was putting together my Mae Murray, invented the tradition of dunking donuts in coffee post. Click here to view post. It reminded me of this charming scene from:

It Happened One Night (1934). Spoiled heiress Ellie Andrews(Claudette Colbert), locked up in the cabin of her father's yacht goes on a hunger strike to get back at her father, who wants to have her marriage to a playboy aviator annulled. 

When she finally escapes, travelling cross-country by bus, Ellie meets up with "down-on-his-luck" reporter, Peter Warne (Clark Gable).

After spending the night at a motor-lodge, Peter cooks her breakfast of a scrambled egg, a donut, and black coffee. Following Peter's lead, Ellie plunges her donut into the cup.

PETER: Say, where did you learn to dunk, in finishing school?

ELLIE: Aw, now, don't you start telling me I shouldn't dunk.

PETER: Of course you shouldn't. You don't know how to do it. Dunking's an art. Don't let it soak so long. A dip and--plop, into your mouth. If you let it soak so long, it'll get soft and fall off. It's all a matter of timing. I ought to write a book about it.

Please click here to read It Happened One Night(1934) movie reiew

Pawsome Pet Picture: Mae Murray.

According to legend: Murray invented the tradition of dunking donuts in coffee. She was having coffee with a friend at Lindy's Restaurant on Broadway when she accidentally dropped her donut in her coffee. When she took a bite out of the donut she said that the coffee had improved its taste and texture.

A Tribute to Mae Murray

A Tribute to Mae Murray

Mae Murray was called the “girl with the bee-stung lips.” She was a popular star of early films, yet she is largely forgotten today.

 Director Erich Von Stroheim’s The Merry Widow (1925) is the film in which Mae Murray is best remembered, but it was not typical of most of her work.

A former showgirl and artists’ model, Mae Murray was born in Portsmouth, Virginia on May 10, 1889, with the name of Marie Adrienne Koenig.

Little is known about Mae’s childhood, but by her teenage years she was already in New York. She made her professional debut singing “Comin’ Through the Rye” as Vernon Castle’s partner in 1906 on Broadway in “About Town” and soon appeared in the 1908, 1909, and 1915 Ziegfeld Follies as a featured dancer.

Mae Murray’s beauty transcended the early years of screen imagery in the teens, a style that reflected the Victorian era’s girl-next door, virginal purity. Mae quickly remade her image in The Roaring Twenties style of hair designs and makeup. Her famous bee stung lips were the vogue in the 1920’s.

Mae starred in 44 films from 1916- 1931. Her early image changed from wholesome virtuous vamps as illustrated by some of the titles of her films: Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1916), The Dream Girl (1916), The Plow Girl (1916), and A Mormon Maid (1917). The titles of some of her jazz-age films were Modern Love (1918), The ABC of Love (1919), The Delicious Little Devil (1919), with a young Rudolph Valentino as her love interest and Peacock Alley (1922).

Fascination (1922) kept Mae well-suited in a parade of splendid gowns, loaded with flaming youth, bee stung lips, and Prohibition defiance. However, “The Dance of the Bulls” stirred up heated controversy and was criticized by many for the suggestive movements deployed by Mae.

Many critics today would acknowledge that Mae was not a great actress, and by the coming of sound she was reduced to working in a poverty row production of Peacock Alley (1930). Mae also appeared in two talkies in 1931, “High Stakes” and “Bachelor Apartment.”

Mae’s best performance was in The Merry Widow (1925), and it was because Erich Von Stroheim  pounded out of Mae a performance of depth and sincerity.

Mae’s marriage to Prince Mdivani, a Georgian prince of dubious ancestry, ended and she lost custody of her son. She was forced into bankruptcy and barely survived the next two decades. In her later years a sort of dementia seemed to overcome her. Mae spent her last days in The Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland  Hills, California. Mae died on March 23, 1965. She was 75 years old.

Silent Film Star: Mae Murray.

Rudolph Valentino, was best man at her 1926 marriage to Prince David Mdivani; Pola Negri was matron of honor.

Please click here to learn more about Mae Murray.

MERRY WIDOW (1925).

I'm so disappointed that I missed The Merry Widow on TCM. I thought I would go ahead and post all the info I found. If you did happen to catch it, please feel free to post a movie review.

The Merry Widow (1925). Silent/ romantic/ drama /black comedy. Director and written by Erich von Stroheim. Cast: Mae Murray, John Gilbert and Roy D'Arcy.

 The film sparked the careers of Joan Crawford, Clark Gable and Myrna Loy who had uncredited roles in the film.

Mae murray: Fun Facts.

Mae Murray (May 10, 1889 – March 23, 1965) was an actress, dancer, film producer, and screenwriter. Mae Murray once stated, "Once you become a star, you are always a star," those words she believed in for the rest of her life. Even though her final performance in films was in (1931).

Murray made her a singing debut with the song "Comin' Through the Rye. Adolph Zukor, of Paramount spotted her in the (1915) version of the Ziegfeld Follies, in which she impersonated "Mary Pickford".

She performed in two films with Valentino. Most of her films, had dance numbers made just for her, written and produced by her third husband, Robert Z. Leonard. She is best known for her performance in the film The Merry Widow(1925).


May Murray: Fun Facts

She believed that she discovered Rudolph Valentino by giving him a role in her film The Delicious Little Devil (1919).

While shopping at Tiffany's, she paid for her jewelry with tiny bags filled with gold dust.

"The Delicious Little Devil" (1919) Valentino

"The Delicious Little Devil " (1919) is a silent comedy that stars the largely forgotten Mae Murray and the legendary Rudolph Valentino in an early role. Directed by Robert Z. Leonard, this light-hearted comedy begins with Mary McGuire, played by Mae Murray, working as a coat and cloak check girl. Mary winds up getting fired from her job when she wears one of the customer's garments and dances around it. Disappointed because she not only loses her job but her father and uncle are so lazy that they expect her to support them, Mary decides to apply for a job as a hostess and dancer at the "Peach Tree Inn." The proprietor tells her that he is looking for a woman "with a past." Mary, who is a virtuous young girl with no past at all, lies, pretending to be the notorious European dancer Gloria De Moine in order to get the job. Even though Mary's dancing ability is obviously lacking as she whirls around the dance floor, the public loves all of her silly dance numbers and outrageous costumes. She becomes a sensation and starts making a lot of money. Every night in a seat of honor is Jimmy Calhoun, played by Rudolph Valentino, the son of a local millionaire. Jimmy is truly smitten with Mary and wants to marry her. However, Michael Calhoun does not like his son getting involved with a dancer and starts investigating the young woman. In the meantime, Gloria De Moine's ex-lover, the Duke, arrives at the "Peach Tree Inn." Realizing he will expose her for a fraud, Mary tries to run away. Unfortunately, the Duke follows her and tries to force himself on her. What will happen to Mary? You will have to watch the film to find out.

"The Delicious Little Devil " was considered a "lost" film until a print was found in 1991 by the Nederlands Filmmuseum. This film is particularly valuable in that it is one of the few of the silent screen superstar Mae Murray known to exist. Even though TCM broadcasts "The Delicious Little Devil" when presenting Valentino films, Mae Murray is the star and he only has a supporting role. Murray was a popular star of early films, but her name has slipped out of the consciousness of popular culture. During the teen years, Murray's style reflected the Victorian era's wholesome, virtuous girls. She quickly remade her image in the Roaring Twenties' style of sharp hair designs and reconstructive makeup. Her famous bee-stung lips were the vogue in the 1920's, exemplified by many leading ladies of the screen. Murray was a fascinating dancer and skillful in light comedy. "The Delicious Little Devil" is a funny and entertaining film. Murray is so sweet and amusing. The scene in which she impersonates Mary Pickford is hilarious. Only fifty five minutes in duration, this little comedy is a delightful glimpse of the early days of the Jazz Age with the charming Mae Murray and the exceedingly handsome Valentino.